Chapter 21: Line Noise (Part I)

The Dean of Engineering was a man built like a ship’s mast. Tall—even though he was sitting behind a desk—with coat-hanger shoulders that punched his suit shirt out like the sail of a ship, his chest a mere billow in the wind. His thin face sported a sharp nose and a vorpal chin, which jutted beneath a dark scowl. Elaine had seen that scowl before, her father would use it when he lectured her over something he knew she wasn’t going to absorb. She had to pull her gaze away from banner-like, stiffened wave of red hair atop his head when he gestured with an arm, long as a pole, and addressed her aloud.

“Ms. Mercer,” he said, “thank you for deigning to join us today. You have been ably dodging this office’s inquires and treats. Although today has fallen in your favor, I would admonish you not to ignore this office in the future. Please take a seat and we’ll begin.”

Elaine glanced around the room. They were alone. Perhaps his use of the word ‘us’ was purely semantic?

The office could have been taken right out of a TV set. A giant wooden desk dominated, set amidst walls of bookcases leaving the one untouched wall covered floor to ceiling with framed accolades. Flickering sunlight played strange patterns on the frames as it slanted in through the partially closed blinds. The air-conditioning created a cold tang in the air that stretched the smell of old cologne across the chemical scent of pine—the source of the latter, a plug-in air-freshener, poked out from behind a bookshelf. She picked her way between two stiff-backed chairs set in front of the table and sat in the one to the left, because her backpack dragged her that way. The dean sat in a tall, leather swivel-chair in an interesting juxtaposition to the stationary audience chairs.

“It disappoints me when the students under my care do not take responsibility for their ethics.” The dean pursed his lips and his dark eyes looked down at her as if from a great height. “I have no reason to believe that you are culpable for any wrongdoing in this matter, but your delay in coming to me may have had dire consequences if others had not intervened in your behalf.”

“You don’t think I did anything wrong?”

Of course, she didn’t do anything wrong—Elaine knew that—but it sure seemed like someone thought she had, otherwise she wouldn’t have been yanked out of an exam to come to this office and sit through a lecture. She would still have access to her lab!

“If you had made our first appointment,” the dean said. “Days ago, I would have informed you that your lab and your access had been removed as per University guidelines when we receive a credible tip that someone may be putting this institution in danger of litigation. Due to your exemplary record as a student, the contributions of your family to this college, and that I don’t feel the need to punish you specifically, I was prepared on that first appointment to resolve this quickly…”

“But I didn’t do anything wrong and I was busy,” she said. “Plus, I thought maybe I needed a lawyer.”

“Perhaps you should have, young lady. Any first year law student would have told you that it was in your best interest to at least contact this office to let us know that you intended to respond. Regardless, you don’t need one now, the investigation is being dropped. But this is aside the point. You disregarded the authority of this office.”

“Dropped?”

“Yes. Dropped,” he said. He hitched his shoulders slightly for a moment, a motion that mimicked rods pivoting beneath grey canvas. “The original tipster contacted us and reneged on their statement and no evidence of wrongdoing has been uncovered. Also, and this part surprises me, we received calls from both Emily Early and Tom Barrett about your part in this investigation. You are an excellent student when it comes to academic brilliance but your social skills are woefully misaligned. How you managed to impress both candidates for student president, frankly, is beyond me.

“Congratulations. You’ve been cleared. You can relax already.”

Me too, Elaine thought to herself; she hadn’t let on to either of them that any of this was going on. Emily couldn’t have known because they didn’t meet in her lab/office—being that it was denied to her—and she never did get a chance to interview Tom seeing as how he was indisposed at the time she found him anyway. Maybe Emily was checking into her…it would only make sense. If she’d ever hired an investigator she’d certainly make sure the person she was dealing with was actually competent—and wasn’t caught up in something illegal. Except, that would have meant that Emily had to have known a lot earlier, but chose not to terminate Elaine’s services. A logical outcome that didn’t quite make sense.

“With that said, I have someone who would like to talk to you.” The dean gestured to the phone. “You have the floor.”

Elaine shifted her gaze to the phone; the conference-call light glared back at her.

“Hey there, kiddo, I hear you got yourself in trouble,” an analog crunched voice said from the phone. A crackle of static briefly hissed as the squelch cut in, but then sprang back as the voice added, “Again.”

Elaine slouched at the sound of the voice. “Blaine?”